Photo: Marcos Pin/AFP/Getty Images
By: The opinion Posted Mar 18, 2023, 14:10 pm EDT
Ecuadorian authorities dealt a resounding blow to drug trafficking with an important drug shipment valued at 228 million dollars, whose final destination was Sierra Leone, in West Africa.
The country’s anti-drug police reported that an operation supported by anti-drug dogs at one of the seaports in the coastal city of Guayaquil led to the discovery of a container with 3.7 tons of cocaine hidden in a shipment of canned fruit.
According to the authorities, the drug was intended to be taken to Sierra Leone, in what would be the first seizure destined for Africa so far in 2023, local television station Teleamazonas reported.
“Research suggests that Africa and Asia would be the new routes that criminal groups are choosing”, added the television station.
During a press conference, General Pablo Ramírez, director of anti-drug investigation, pointed out that in Ecuador that amount is valued at about eight million dollars, while abroad it reaches 228 million dollars.
Furthermore, he revealed that since January the police have seized about 40 tons of drugs and has arrested more than 2,500 people for drug trafficking. “In the ports we have seized 19 tons of cocaine hydrochloride,” added Ramírez.
Ecuador is the third country in the world where more drugs are seizedonly behind Colombia and the United States, according to the latest World Drug Report prepared by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
According to the Efe agency, since 2021 the volume of drugs seized in the country exceeds 450 tons.
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